Retro Studios is not working on Eternal Darkness 2 or Zelda, Wii 2 may fall prey to flood of ports

Emily Rogers has made quite the name for herself over the past week or so, starting by giving us hope for Pikmin 3 finally seeing the light of day on the Wii’s successor, followed by an outpouring of tempting tidbits.

Emily then warned us that there is one particular third party that is “planning to shamelessly milk the new Nintendo console with lots of PS3/360 ports.” Nintendo allegedly told developers how easy it is to port games over from the Xbox 360, due to Project Café’s similar architecture, and this one developer thinks it’s a passable excuse to pass on making anything too original for the new system. Ubisoft and EA are on the list of developers thought to be in possession of a Project Café dev kit, so it’s not surprising to hear something like this.

Lastly, Emily claims to have seen a number of screenshots of a Project Café game, and says that they are “more beautiful than any PS3/360 game I’ve seen,” noting that Nintendo’s famous expanded colour palette really shines when paired up with the system’s next-generation horsepower. “You will know what game I’m talking about when E3 comes around,” she teased (I bet it’s Pikmin 3).

Emily also finally told us where she’s getting her info from. Apparently, she’s dating someone who works very closely with Nintendo, but warns us to take the info she passes on from him with a grain of salt nonetheless.

The sad thing is that it may happen. There has been a considerable gap in third-party support between Nintendo and Sony/Microsoft since the 6th generation (PlayStation 2/Xbox/GameCube). When all the 7th generation consoles were released, gaming companies realized the Wii was a money fountain, so they started pouring in ports from last gen, most of which were never released on the GameCube. In this generation, the gap is mostly about graphics processing and it has affected third-party support for the Wii. Now, we’re seeing the 8th generation on the horizon and developers that have either seldom or never supported the Wii may be looking to cash in.

I’d love for Pikmin 3 to look that good! Certainly footage I’d pass around when it’s made available.

While I’d like a DKCR2 eventually, it really is too early. As you’ll recall, it’s a project that “everyone wants us to do,” and that kind of fanfare doesn’t scream “sequel for a game we made 5 months ago.

It’s Metroid, enough said. Retro already took their break from it. They said they’d return to the series if fans wanted them to, and judging by critical and sales reception to Other M compared to Primes, it’s clear that many want them back.

It doesn’t have to be Metroid Prime 4, BTW. If they brought back Donkey Kong to his 2-D platformer roots, then why can’t they do the same for Samus?

Whatever Retro is making had better not be a boring title like star fox. Retro studios is too talented of a company to not be making an interesting title. Eternal Darkness was one of my all time favorite survival horrors and i was happy to get some hope that a talented company such as retro was making it. Eternal Darkness was Nintendo’s first published game to get an M rating and it was one of the most interesting games I have ever played and I am very surprised that nintendo hasn’t made it into a series. I know silicon knights made it but nintendo still holds the rights to it and its a shame retro is apparently not making it. Of course I spot a loophole. Emily Rogers stated that retro isn’t making Eternal Darkness 2. They could be working on a remake of the original Eternal Darkness because of how obscure it was so they might be working on a remake before they actually continue the series. I’m really hoping that’s the case. If not I hope they are working on another obscure game from nintendo’s past like startropics.